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Born in Scotland in 1962, Ford Kiernan was originally a tailor who branched out into comedy, appearing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1995. His debut was appearing in his play, written with Greg Hemphill, "Still Game" (2002), which is now a hit sitcom in Scotland. He is married to Lesley, and they have two children.- Actor
- Writer
The legendary Scottish entertainer came from a family of entertainers. He started by selling programmes then moved onto operating theatre lights at the age of 8 and performing a cowboy act at 10. He was an assistant manager at 15, tackled juvenile leads and landed his own show at the Metropole Theatre Glasgow at 19.
By 1950 he had his own radio show - 'It's All Yours; - then broke into television in England with his own sketch series for ATV Television who broadcast them under the 'Saturday Showtime' banner. Entitled 'Jimmy Logan' they were written for him by Eric Sykes.
He practically held court at The Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow, appearing in 6 monthly runs of the revue 'Five Past Eight' and 4 month runs of Pantomime productions. In 1957 he played to over 320,000 in 21 weeks and in the same year appeared before the Queen in the Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium.- Michelle is one of the UK's most successful female entrepreneurs and founder of international lingerie brand, Ultimo.
She was born in 1951 and grew up in Glasgow. Her early ambitions were to become a model and she left school at the age of 15 to pursue her dream, but after falling pregnant with her first child and getting married she left the idea of becoming a model behind her.
After working at a marketing job with brewer Labatt for two years she was promoted to their head of marketing in Scotland.
It was whilst wearing an uncomfortable cleavage enhancing brassiere at a dinner dance that Michelle thought she could create a better, and more comfortable, design. She had read about a new silicone product while on holiday in Florida, and obtained the European licence to make bras from it.
She founded MJM International Ltd in November 1996, and three years of research, design, and development resulted in the patented Ultimo bra. The company was launched in the traditional ship building district of Glasgow, Govan, bringing to needed jobs an area which has experienced a long period of decline.
Then in 1999, the Ultimo bra was launched at Selfridges department store in London, becoming an instant best-seller.
Selfridges sold the pre-launch estimate of six weeks of stock within 24 hours, which is still known as the biggest ever bra launch in the UK, with over 50 photographers present and camera crews from all over the world.
For her entrepreneurial activities, Michelle won the World Young Business Achiever Award in April 2000.
Michelle was voted as Britain's Number One most powerful woman in business by Glamour magazine as well as receiving an OBE from The Queen in 2010 in recognition of her services to UK business.
Michelle is a dedicated charity supporter, fund-raiser and volunteer and has raised thousands of pounds for organisations of all sizes. She is represented in the UK by Useful Talent who are specialists in celebrity led endorsements, advertising contracts, PR campaigns, corporate entertainment, product launches and personal appearances. - Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
David McNiven was a musician and composer whose work featured in theatre, on radio and on television - he provided the music for Rab C Nesbitt amongst other shows - as well as winning his group Bread Love and Dreams cult status among aficionados of progressive rock and acid folk music.
The group's three albums, recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s, sold disappointingly at the time but now fetch three- and four-figure sums among collectors of vintage vinyl.
Born in Dennistoun, McNiven was given his first instrument, a banjo, by his grandmother and used it to write his first song. He also played clarinet and saxophone and when, in his teens, he met and became friends with another Dennistoun boy on holiday in Millport, the actor Bill Paterson, he formed his first performing partnership.
The two would busk on the streets of the resort as strolling players, Paterson reciting scenes from Shakespeare while wearing a white sheet and McNiven singing and accompanying himself. They came to the attention of Duncan Macrae, the actor and comedian, who had a house in Millport and became a mentor and friend, inviting them to his house in Glasgow to watch the ground-breaking satirical television show That Was The Week That Was and sip cider.
At school, after Dennistoun Private School he attended the High School of Glasgow - McNiven hated classical music lessons but he was encouraged by his English teacher, Donald MacCormick, later a broadcaster and Newsnight presenter. MacCormick gave McNiven a room to himself and told him to get on with playing guitar and writing songs.
McNiven went on to study drama and did various jobs, including bingo caller, bus conductor and laborers at an iron works before, in 1967, he formed Bread Love and Dreams with singer-guitarist-keyboards player Angie Rew, who became his wife, and guitarist Carolyn Davis. While appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe, the group came to the attention of and were subsequently championed by Ray Horricks, a producer and A&R man at Decca Records who had overseen guitar legend Davy Graham's recordings, and they released their eponymous first album in early 1969.
Despite the group touring the UK extensively with Tyrannosaurus Rex and Magna Carta to promote it, the album sold poorly and Davis left. McNiven kept writing and developed a relationship with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. One of the pieces intended for the next Bread Love and Dreams album, Mother Earth, was adapted for the theatre group and performed in Edinburgh, then toured to London and Europe.
In 1970, Bread Love and Dreams went back into the studio with session players including The Pentangle's rhythm section, bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox, and recorded enough material for a double album. This eventually appeared as two separate albums, The Strange Tale of Captain Shannon and The Hunchback from Gigha and Amaryllis, after which McNiven decided to pursue theatre projects.
He acted with the Traverse Theatre Workshop then the Young Lyceum and joined the 7.84 Theatre Company, going on to form its music offshoot, Wildcat, with Rew, keyboardist Dave Anderson and singer Terry Neason. Shows for Neason, including Jenny and the Poison Factory, and work on Liz Lochhead's Dracula followed and as well as leading the backing band for Emma Thompson's breakthrough Edinburgh Fringe show McNiven composed for BBC Scotland's Naked Radio, subsequently moving on to television work with A Kick up the Eighties and Naked Video and composing the theme for Ben Elton's Happy Families, which was played by the Halle Orchestra.
At one point McNiven was commuting daily between Granada Television's studio in Manchester, where he was working on Alfresco with Robbie Coltrane and Stephen Fry, and Edinburgh, where he had a rock version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera running at the Lyceum. For Rab C Nesbitt he not only wrote the theme tune and all the incidental music, he also played the parts of Marshall Gormley and Clatty McCutcheon. Altogether he composed the themes for more than twenty television series including Atletico Partick.
In more recent times McNiven worked with children and adults with special educational needs notably with Drake Music Scotland. Here he successfully campaigned for the Scottish Qualifications Authority to recognize the Brainfingers system, which allows pupils with cerebral palsy to create music with a laptop and to interact with other musicians, as just as valid as conventional musical instruments. Share article
He is survived by his wife, Angie, daughters Anya and Lucille and son Martin.- John Mackenzie was born on 4 September 1925 in Dennistoun, Scotland, UK. He died on 5 July 2017.